This breakthrough paves the way for more powerful and compact quantum computers

Australian engineers recently overcame a major hurdle, paving the way for the development of a new generation of more powerful and compact quantum computers.

big challenge

Although impressive progress has been made in recent years in quantum computing, the simultaneous management of a large number of qubit It is a big challenge for this type of machine. In the context of the work published in the magazine science progressand researchers fromUniversity of New South Wales (UNSW) I found a way to control millions of them at once.

Traditional computers store and process data in the form of binary bits (0 or 1). For their part, quantum machines use qubit ‘, or quantum bits, which can exist in a simultaneous superposition of these two states, dramatically increasing computing power.

In quantum silicon processors, information is encoded in ” yarn » An electron (that is, the property that gives it magnetically), with an upward and downward rotation representing ones and zeros, is generally obtained thanks to the magnetic field produced by wires arranged along qubits. Problem: These wires take up a lot of space and also generate a lot of heat, currently limiting the number of bits per chip to a few dozen.

Millions of qubits are controlled simultaneously

the teamUniversity of New South Wales He recently developed a new approach to applying a magnetic field to a large number of qubits simultaneously. This is based on a crystal prism called a dielectric resonator, which is placed just above the silicon wafer. Microwaves are directed toward this prism reducing their length to less than a millimeter, creating a magnetic field that controls the rotation of the qubits below.

« Two major innovations are included here ‘, he explains Jared Blah, lead author of the study. ” First, we don’t need to use a lot of energy to get a strong magnetic field for qubits, which means we don’t produce a lot of heat. Second, the field produced turns out to be very homogeneous, so the millions of qubits on a silicon chip would all benefit from the same level of control.. »

So far, this field has made it possible to invert individual qubit states, and more work will be needed to achieve the overlap between two states simultaneously. According to the team, this method should eventually allow up to four million qubits to be controlled simultaneously.